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Weather

WEATHER - GENERAL INFORMATION


Flash Riprock and the Bolt from the Blue This is a lightning safety poster in pdf
format that can be downloaded. It also lists lightning myths that need to be dispelled.
www.srh.noaa.gov/srh/jetstream/lightning/flashriprock.htm


Night of a Thousand Trains This is a tornado safety poster in pdf format that
can be downloaded. It also lists tornado myths that need to be dispelled.
www.srh.noaa.gov/srh/jetstream/mesoscale/1000trains.htmh


NOAA's Storm Watch This is a roundup of NOAA weather Web sites.
You'll find links to the latest weather forecasts around the USA and even
around the world. Track storms through NOAA weather satellites, get the
latest weather maps and learn how to protect yourself and your community
from severe weather. www.noaa.gov/stormwatch

 Climate Prediction Center - The Climate Prediction Center
serves the public by assessing and forecasting the impacts of
short-term climate variability and emphasizing enhanced risks of
weather-related extreme events. Educational materials include information
on the ENSO cycle, and fact sheets and monographs. www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/outreach/education.html

 National Weather Service
- Come right to the primary source for weather
forecasting and prediction. This is the home page for the National
Weather Service with links to all the Weather forecast offices around
the country.www.nws.noaa.gov

 NOAA Weather Radio - The voice of the National Weather Service. NOAA
Weather Radio broadcasts National Weather Service watches, warnings and
forecasts and other hazard information 24 hours a day.tgsv5.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/nwrback.htm

 Past Weather - If you’re looking for past weather information, you’ve
found the right place. This is a roundup of NOAA Web sites that contain archived weather
information. The NOAA Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., is the world’s largest
reservoir of archived climate and weather data. Official weather records date back to 1895.
You can obtain certified weather information for a court case, building project or other purpose.
www.noaa.gov/pastweather.html

 JetStream - Learn About Weather Online
-JetStream is arranged by subject: beginning with global and large scale weather patterns
followed by lessons on air masses, wind patterns, cloud formations, thunderstorms,
lightning, hail, damaging winds, tornados, tropical storms, cyclones and flooding.
Interspersed in JetStream are "Learning Lessons" which can be used to enhance the
educational experience.www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/

 Aviation Weather Center Information - Provides links to a number useful sites which list weather and aviation
contractions as well as other acronyms. These are helpful when reading weather maps and other
materials generated by the National Weather Service.http://aviationweather.gov/static/info/

 Frequently Used Terms - Developed by a National Weather Service Forecast
Office, there are a number of sites that include: General Forecast
Terminology, Severe Weather Terms, Hydrologic Terms,
Coastal/Oceanic/Marine Terms, and more. http://www.srh.noaa.gov/fwd/media/appendix/glossaryf.htm

 Meteorological Calculator -With your very own meteorological calculator,
you can convert air temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius, calculate
wind chill, relative humidity, and heat index.www.srh.noaa.gov/ffc/html/metcalc.shtml

 Historic Weather Events for the DC Area - This site provides
a historical perspective of DC/Virginia/Maryland/West Virginia weather,
including storms of the century and inauguration weather from the past.
www.nws.noaa.gov/er/lwx/Historic_Events

LIGHTNING AND THUNDERSTORMS


Lightning Kills, Play it Safe Summer is the peak season for one of the
nation's deadliest weather phenomena - lightning. In the United States,
an average of 73 people are killed each year by lightning. That's more than the
annual number of people killed by tornadoes or hurricanes. Many more people are struck
but survive. However, they often report a variety of long-term, debilitating symptoms,
including memory loss, attention deficits, sleep disorders, numbness, dizziness,
stiffness in joints, irritability, fatigue, weakness, muscle spasms, depression,
and an inability to sit for long. To learn more about lightning, be sure to check
out the Quick Facts. www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/

HURRICANES


The National Hurricane Center Home Page - The Tropical Prediction
Center home page can provide hours of interesting investigation on the
subject of hurricanes. Learn from the section on Frequently Asked
Questions (FAQs), and about the history of noteworthy storms, hurricane
direct hits on the mainland U.S. coastline and for individual states
from 1900-1996 and lots more. www.nhc.noaa.gov/

 Hurricane Names - Hurricanes have names that are taken from a central
list. Is your name there? Take a look at the names for the World-Wide
Tropical Cyclone Names that are to be used for storms in the Atlantic
and the Pacific as well as the waters around Australia, the Fiji Islands
and India. www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml

 The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale - This scale is a 1-5 rating based on
the hurricane's intensity. The scale is used to give an estimate of the
potential property damage and flooding expected along the coast from a
hurricane landfall. Wind speed is the determining factor in the scale,
as storm surge values are highly dependent on the slope of the
continental shelf in the landfall region.www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshs.shtml

 Hurricane Tracking Chart - You can download this gif image of the
Atlantic Ocean from Nova Scotia to northern South America and the Gulf
of Mexico to track Atlantic hurricanes. www.nhc.noaa.gov/gifs/track_chart.gif

 Hurricane Basics - This booklet, in pdf format, provides you
with the anatomy of a hurricane and the ingredients that make these
killer storms come alive. Graphics help the reader understand how the
storms form. As the heat and energy for the storm are gathered by the
disturbance through contact with warm ocean waters, the winds
near the ocean surface spiral into the disturbance's low pressure
area. Learn more from this booklet. hurricanes.noaa.gov/pdf/hurricanebook.pdf

 Hurricane Basics - This booklet, in pdf format, provides you
with the anatomy of a hurricane and the ingredients that make these
killer storms come alive. Graphics help the reader understand how the
storms form. As the heat and energy for the storm are gathered by the
disturbance through contact with warm ocean waters, the winds
near the ocean surface spiral into the disturbance's low pressure
area. Learn more from this booklet. www.climate.noaa.gov/education/hurricanes/hurricane_basics.pdf

TORNADOES

 Tornadoes...Nature's Most Violent Storms: A Preparedness Guide
- Including Safety Information for Schools. This web site was created
from a booklet, published by NOAA, FEMA and the American Red Cross. It
explains how tornadoes are formed and what steps need to be taken to
stay safe. This site also contains a Tornado Safety Plan for Schools.http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/edu/safety/tornadoguide.html

 Questions and Answers About Tornadoes - This web site provides
information about tornadoes in a simple Q&A format. It focuses on the
need for safety, and it provides easy to understand text about the
characteristics of tornadoes.http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/primer/tornado/tor_faq.shtml

DROUGHTS

 North American Drought: A Paleo Perspective - This site
was designed to explain how paleoclimatic data can provide information
about past droughts and about the natural variability of drought over
timescales of decades to millennia. We note that droughts are a world
wide phenomenon and affect the global community. However, the focus
of these Web pages is North America.
www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/drought/drght_home.html

WEATHER BALLOONS

 The Weather Balloon - Learn about weather balloons - what
they are, how they take observations, and how the information is used to predict the
weather. Your machine will need to have the "RealVideo" plug-in and a sound card with
speakers to access this information.
www.nws.noaa.gov/om/educ/radiosnd.rm

 Weather Balloon Video (Small Image) - Watch a weather balloon being inflated
and released, then listen to the signal from the instrument (radiosonde) attached
to the weather balloon as it transmits data back to the ground where the data is
plotted on a computer. This is a stamp-sized version at 390kb. Your machine will
need to have the "RealVideo" plug-in and a sound card to access this information.
www.nws.noaa.gov/om/educ/wxblstmp.rm